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The bulletin of Atlanta University, 1893 no. 44

The bulletin of Atlanta University

NUMBER 44. ATLANTA, GEORGIA. MARCH, 1893. Atlanta University, A tlanta, Ga. Has 600 students in College, Normal College preparatory, Grammar, and Primary departments, under 30 officers and teachers. Trains teachers and leaders of their race from among the sons and daughters of the Freedmen of the South. Gives industrial training in wood-work, iron-work, mechanical drawing, printing, farming, cooking, sewing, dressmaking, millinery, laundry-work, and nursing the sick. Has sent out 235 graduates from College and Normal courses, nearly all of whom, together with hundred's of past under-graduates, are engaged in teaching and other useful work in Georgia and surrounding states. Owns four large brick buildings, on seventy acres of land, one mile from the centre of Atlanta, Ga., library of 7,000 vols., apparatus. and other equipment—all valued at not less than a quarter of a million dollars. Having no endowment (except about 33,000, mostly for special objects), the Institution requires at least $25,000 a year in donations from its friends to continue the work now in hand, and a fund of about $500,000 to put that work on a permanent basis. Annual scholarships of $40 each are asked for to provide for the tuition of one student for one year. Subscriptions of $100 and upwards are solicited for general current expenses. Legacies for endowment or for current expenses are greatly desired. Remittances of donations or inquiries for further information may be addressed to Pres. Horace Bumstead, D. D. Atlanta, Ga. TO PRESIDENT BUMSTEAD ON RECOVERY FROM AN ILLNESS. May your life be long and bright, Strong in battling for the right, Trampling down the wrong. Ever helping all in need, Lending aid in word and deed, Lifting those not strong. Ended then will be your days, Crowned with God's love, Blessed with man's praise. J. W. J., '94. A BRAND. He wandered thro' the earth despised, Contemned of men. Hounded was he from every cave, And shelt'ring den. Upon his brow he wore a brand, And on his back, A thousand stripes for it he bore: His skin was black. One day he stood at heaven's gate, His toil was o'er. He entered,stood before his God: His soul was pure. James W. Johnson, class of '94. AN ATLANTA GRADUATE'S DEFENSE OF HIS RACE. Mr. Butler R. Wilson, a graduate of the College course in Atlanta University in 1881, wrote recently as follows to the Boston, Mass., Transcript, in reply to some reflections of its Washington correspondent upon the colored population of Washington and the South : To the Editor of the Transcript: In many of its references to the colored people generally and to those of Washington particularly, the letter of "Sydney," in your issue of Friday, Jan. 20, was incorrect and unjust. So accustomed are the colored people to find in the Transcript brave words and earnest, advanced views on all questions relating to them, that this letter, from its prominent sub-head of "The Southern view of those lazy darkies " to the monstrous statement that freedom " turned the most peaceable and law-abiding people in the world into the most criminal race in this or any other civilized country; and from being moderately industrious, into a race of idlers," is a very great surprise, and its errors and injustice warrant an answer. Sydney says, "It may be laid down as an axiom regarding seventy per cent of the Negro race that they will not work except just enough to keep body and soul together." That is, 5,600,000 Negroes consume all that they can earn and save nothing, and whatever of accumulation may exist must be credited to the remaining 2,400,000. Take for granted this estimate. Where does it lead us ? In 143 years, from the landing at Plymouth to the emancipation of the slave, the white people of the country, owning the garden spot of the world, rich in mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, coal, and iron; with unpaid Negro labor to cultivate it; with centuries of inherited financial skill, trading and commercial ability, business habits and inventive genius, and with an ever increasing population of the best blood of the earth, accumulated $16,159,616,068, or $505 per capita— $1.25 per capita per year. The Negroes, emancipated without land, tools, business experience, trading or financial skill, or even independence of thought, operating largely in a country devastated and impoverished by war, dependent for occupation in the cities, very generally upon whitewashing, chores, the wash-tub, waiting, and the less remunerative employments, and in the country upon crude farming without machinery, without learning, without capital, and in competition with their former owners, who were bred to the belief that the results of the Negroes' labor belonged to them, and which they did not scruple to take by cheating or other means, accumulated in twenty-eight years, in round numbers, $300,000,000. Keeping the estimate of " Sydney, " this would give the Negro $125 per capita for the time they have been permitted to work for themselves, or $4.03 per capita per year. The white man under the best conditions in 243 years earned $1.25 per year. The Negro under the worst conditions earned $4.03 per year. The charge against the colored people of Washington is very severe. The women are said to be less thrifty and more vicious than the men. This is a new indictment of the Negro women. In Washington they are laundresses, cooks, maids nursery girls, and sewing women. There is no more " pathetic incident in history than that of Negro women toiling at the washtub, in the kitchen, and as servants generally, and devoting their earnings to giving their home life the education and refinement which they were denied by "Sydney's" ancestors. And when he says, " the younger generation of Negro women though, are violently averse to domestic service, which, after all, is the only thing for which they are fitted," his animus is apparent. The wish is father to the thought. In the care taken to learn of the criminals in the police courts of the District, the many beautiful and luxurious homes owned by the colored people are lost sight of. In many of these homes fathers and sons are graduates of Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Oberlin, Columbia, and other colleges. The. mothers and girls represent Wellesley, the noted New England seminaries, and other schools for women. Many of these boys are in the pro- fessions, in the church, in commercial and such pursuits. Of the girls two hundred and twenty-two are teachers in the city schools. And " Sydney" feels aggrieved that those of them who are

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NUMBER 44. ATLANTA, GEORGIA. MARCH, 1893. Atlanta University, A tlanta, Ga. Has 600 students in College, Normal College preparatory, Grammar, and Primary departments, under 30 officers and teachers. Trains teachers and leaders of their race from among the sons and daughters of the Freedmen of the South. Gives industrial training in wood-work, iron-work, mechanical drawing, printing, farming, cooking, sewing, dressmaking, millinery, laundry-work, and nursing the sick. Has sent out 235 graduates from College and Normal courses, nearly all of whom, together with hundred's of past under-graduates, are engaged in teaching and other useful work in Georgia and surrounding states. Owns four large brick buildings, on seventy acres of land, one mile from the centre of Atlanta, Ga., library of 7,000 vols., apparatus. and other equipment—all valued at not less than a quarter of a million dollars. Having no endowment (except about 33,000, mostly for special objects), the Institution requires at least $25,000 a year in donations from its friends to continue the work now in hand, and a fund of about $500,000 to put that work on a permanent basis. Annual scholarships of $40 each are asked for to provide for the tuition of one student for one year. Subscriptions of $100 and upwards are solicited for general current expenses. Legacies for endowment or for current expenses are greatly desired. Remittances of donations or inquiries for further information may be addressed to Pres. Horace Bumstead, D. D. Atlanta, Ga. TO PRESIDENT BUMSTEAD ON RECOVERY FROM AN ILLNESS. May your life be long and bright, Strong in battling for the right, Trampling down the wrong. Ever helping all in need, Lending aid in word and deed, Lifting those not strong. Ended then will be your days, Crowned with God's love, Blessed with man's praise. J. W. J., '94. A BRAND. He wandered thro' the earth despised, Contemned of men. Hounded was he from every cave, And shelt'ring den. Upon his brow he wore a brand, And on his back, A thousand stripes for it he bore: His skin was black. One day he stood at heaven's gate, His toil was o'er. He entered,stood before his God: His soul was pure. James W. Johnson, class of '94. AN ATLANTA GRADUATE'S DEFENSE OF HIS RACE. Mr. Butler R. Wilson, a graduate of the College course in Atlanta University in 1881, wrote recently as follows to the Boston, Mass., Transcript, in reply to some reflections of its Washington correspondent upon the colored population of Washington and the South : To the Editor of the Transcript: In many of its references to the colored people generally and to those of Washington particularly, the letter of "Sydney," in your issue of Friday, Jan. 20, was incorrect and unjust. So accustomed are the colored people to find in the Transcript brave words and earnest, advanced views on all questions relating to them, that this letter, from its prominent sub-head of "The Southern view of those lazy darkies " to the monstrous statement that freedom " turned the most peaceable and law-abiding people in the world into the most criminal race in this or any other civilized country; and from being moderately industrious, into a race of idlers," is a very great surprise, and its errors and injustice warrant an answer. Sydney says, "It may be laid down as an axiom regarding seventy per cent of the Negro race that they will not work except just enough to keep body and soul together." That is, 5,600,000 Negroes consume all that they can earn and save nothing, and whatever of accumulation may exist must be credited to the remaining 2,400,000. Take for granted this estimate. Where does it lead us ? In 143 years, from the landing at Plymouth to the emancipation of the slave, the white people of the country, owning the garden spot of the world, rich in mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, coal, and iron; with unpaid Negro labor to cultivate it; with centuries of inherited financial skill, trading and commercial ability, business habits and inventive genius, and with an ever increasing population of the best blood of the earth, accumulated $16,159,616,068, or $505 per capita— $1.25 per capita per year. The Negroes, emancipated without land, tools, business experience, trading or financial skill, or even independence of thought, operating largely in a country devastated and impoverished by war, dependent for occupation in the cities, very generally upon whitewashing, chores, the wash-tub, waiting, and the less remunerative employments, and in the country upon crude farming without machinery, without learning, without capital, and in competition with their former owners, who were bred to the belief that the results of the Negroes' labor belonged to them, and which they did not scruple to take by cheating or other means, accumulated in twenty-eight years, in round numbers, $300,000,000. Keeping the estimate of " Sydney, " this would give the Negro $125 per capita for the time they have been permitted to work for themselves, or $4.03 per capita per year. The white man under the best conditions in 243 years earned $1.25 per year. The Negro under the worst conditions earned $4.03 per year. The charge against the colored people of Washington is very severe. The women are said to be less thrifty and more vicious than the men. This is a new indictment of the Negro women. In Washington they are laundresses, cooks, maids nursery girls, and sewing women. There is no more " pathetic incident in history than that of Negro women toiling at the washtub, in the kitchen, and as servants generally, and devoting their earnings to giving their home life the education and refinement which they were denied by "Sydney's" ancestors. And when he says, " the younger generation of Negro women though, are violently averse to domestic service, which, after all, is the only thing for which they are fitted," his animus is apparent. The wish is father to the thought. In the care taken to learn of the criminals in the police courts of the District, the many beautiful and luxurious homes owned by the colored people are lost sight of. In many of these homes fathers and sons are graduates of Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Oberlin, Columbia, and other colleges. The. mothers and girls represent Wellesley, the noted New England seminaries, and other schools for women. Many of these boys are in the pro- fessions, in the church, in commercial and such pursuits. Of the girls two hundred and twenty-two are teachers in the city schools. And " Sydney" feels aggrieved that those of them who are